1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for sending a voice message in a mobile communication network.
2. Related Art
A conventional voice communication method is a currently used telephone communication method that allows a user to use a service of voice communication or supplementary voice communication with a counterpart in such a way as to press a call button after inputting the counterpart's telephone number, or press a call button after inputting a special code and the telephone number.
In the case of a short message, it is inconvenient for some user to send message because user have to know each access method for supplementary voice communication service. That is, in order to use the supplementary voice communication service, a user must press the call button after inputting a prefix, a feature code or special code number for voice communication service and a counterpart's telephone number, or gain access to an Audio Response System (ARS) for supplementary service. For this reason, the method of sending a message to a counterpart is difficult to learn, so that older customers rarely use the service.
Furthermore, in the case of a Voice Mail System (VMS), in order to send a voice message to a counterpart, a user must gain access to the VMS using the VMS's representative access number instead of the counterpart's telephone number, and then undergo processes of authenticating a calling party, inputting a called party's number and storing a voice message. Furthermore, the VMS is complicated in that it requires the several steps in which a called party receives a short message regarding a voice message sent by a sender, gains access to the VMS, undergoes an authentication process using a password or the like, and listens to the received voice message, and has limitations in the method of listening to a received voice message and then immediately making a reply to a calling party using a voice message.